There is an increasing demand for methods for generating nanostructures for use in numerous electrical, optical, biological, mechanical and other technological devices. Such devices include, for example, solar cells, photo-detectors, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), photonic crystals, memory devices, nano-filtration, fuel cells, and artificial kidneys. Conventional photolithography techniques cannot satisfy the small dimension requirements in many of these applications, due to the light source's wavelength limit.